APC, PDP disagree on Dickson’s Aso Rock visit

Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson’s “surprise visit” to Aso Rock Villa in Abuja ahead of the January 9 rerun raised dust yesterday across the state.

The state’s All Progressives Congress (APC) said the governor’s Tuesday visit was an apparent move to lobby President Muhammadu Buhari on the rerun.

In a statement by the Director of Media and Publicity of the Sylva-Igiri Campaign Organisation (SICO), Chief Nathan Egba, APC said President Buhari refused to see him.

The party described the governor as a desperate and violence-prone candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

It wondered why he wanted to see the President he had accused of wanting to rig the Bayelsa poll with federal might.

The statement said: “Sources in the Presidential Villa in Abuja report that many people were surprised to see Governor Dickson around, having stayed away from the Villa in the past weeks.

“Information indicates that Mr. Dickson’s request to see the President was turned down and he was directed to meet the Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari.

“Our investigations showed that Governor Dickson is quite unsettled ahead of the January 9 rerun in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, which is a stronghold of the APC, and he is now reportedly looking for a soft-landing.

“Dickson may have told the chief of staff that he was at the Villa to apologise for his utterances during the election, which has embarrassed the President, who had no hand in the conduct of the election in Bayelsa State.”

APC urged President Buhari to be wary of the governor, alleging that his plan was to win the election through violence.

It added: “Nigerians have now formed a negative impression about the aggressive governor, who is adept at intimidating and harassing people to support his second term ambition while beating up public officers like the Southern Ijaw Local Government’s Chairman Remember Ogbe, for not delivering the area.

“We are confident that the APC candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, will win in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and the other 101 polling units across the state, because Bayelsa residents are yearning to be part of the national change movement.”

But the PDP, through the Restoration Campaign Organisation (RCO), said Dickson was not in Aso Rock to see President Buhari.

RCO’s Director of Publicity Jonathan Obuebite said the report was APC’s propaganda.

The statement said: “It’s almost like a no-brainer for any discerning mind to know that nobody just wakes up in the morning, gets dressed and heads straight to the Villa without being invited or having a prior appointment.

“It is inconceivable for anyone to assume, let alone believe, that the governor of an oil-rich state, which contributes over 40 per cent of the nation’s wealth, would be denied access to the President.

“The APC has lost and they know it. No amount of propaganda and blackmail will return them as winners. They have been rejected by the people and we sympathise with them because the APC is finished in Bayelsa State.”